


More Than Just a Treat

by JessKo



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Original Trilogy
Genre: Baking, Feels, Gen, Loneliness
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-24
Updated: 2019-08-24
Packaged: 2020-09-25 05:20:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20371348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JessKo/pseuds/JessKo
Summary: Beru and Luke bake cookies for Old Ben.Luke, ever curious, decides to venture out to see the treat’s destination...





	More Than Just a Treat

**Author's Note:**

> A little idea I had way too late at night... Enjoy!

Beru Whitesun Lars had many talents, one of which that earned her the most praise being her skills in the kitchen. Seemingly a lifetime ago, she had wanted to open her own cafe, but life had other plans for her, and that was alright. 

One of her favorite customers, however, was one who never gave feedback aside from an empty tray, not a single crumb remaining. This she considered the highest praise. So, every now and then, when testing a new recipe or simply baking more muffins than she knew Owen and her young adopted son Luke could eat, she loaded a platter with food and sent it out into the harsh desert in the arms of a rusted old astromech droid. 

Traveling across great expanses of uninhabited desert sand, it was a miracle the droid even returned at all. Yet Beru knew it was worth the risk of loss, especially to the recipient. She was not sure why he stuck around on Tatooine, but was surely not in a position to judge, also carving out a living in this place. 

Later that evening, a low hum prompted Luke to burst from his place at the dinner table to the front door, snatching up the platter, once again empty. 

“Look! All gone!” He announced, setting sunlight reflecting in youthful eyes. 

Beru could only smile. “Yes, he must have been very hungry.” 

Owen rolled his eyes. He wished Beru would just leave the old hermit be, but she’d not given him an inch on the topic, so he let it rest. If it made her happy, well, he supposed it was worth risking the rusted out droid. 

Sitting back down to supper, Luke rolled and pushed his food around the plate. “You know…” he began, flashing Tooka-eyes up at his aunt. 

She crossed her arms with a sly grin. “What?” 

“Next time, maybe I can help deliver the plate with TeeNine?” Luke asked quickly, as if his aunt would say yes on merit of not understanding the query. 

But, Beru was far sharper than that. “No way, kid. But I tell you what. I just got some fresh eggs that we can use to bake cookies. Want to help decorate?” 

A short lived pout upturned into a smile. “Yeah! We can make a bantha, and a landspeeder, and sandcrawler…” Luke began listing ideas for cookies at a mile a minute, and the adults took the time to quickly finish their meals and contentedly nod along. 

-

Obi Wan heard a familiar knock at his door. Or rather, a familiar banging of metal against wood. Owen ought to give this little droid a tune up, poor thing barely has any sense of depth anymore, rolling right into its destination, he thought to himself as he admitted the visitor. 

Greeting Obi Wan with a generic binary buzz, the droid thrust a covered plate into Obi Wan’s arms. 

“Yes, yes. I will take this from you, little one.” Obi Wan said softly, uncovering the plate to see something a bit… unorthodox. Beru was, above all else, a perfectionist with her baking. Yet, here were three incredibly crude cookies, unevenly iced and hard to even decipher their shape. Setting them down on his table, Obi Wan returned the plate with a message of thanks he was sure the astromech would forget half way back to the Lars moisture farm. 

After watching the droid roll away, Obi Wan turned back to the cookies. There were three, the first in the shape of a bantha but iced in bright purple with haphazard yellow squiggles. The second was a red and orange square with a grey blob set at the meeting of the colors. Perhaps it was a sandcrawler, Obi Wan considered. Then he reached the third cookie. A simple blue circle on which the letter ‘L’ had been emblazoned in green. 

Of course. These were the work of a child. Of Luke. A decently large part of Obi Wan didn’t even want to eat these. But then again, it would be wasteful to just let them rot. By sundown, he’d eaten all but the third. The ‘L’ was shaky, but not nearly as so as the lines on the bantha and Obi Wan considered Beru’s steady hands wrapped over Luke’s much smaller pair, guiding him in forming the letter. The thought made him smile as he finally bit into the sweet treat. 

-

Pulling her sweet bread loaves from the oven, Beru smiled, inhaling the pleasant aroma. Luke lingered nearby, setting his crayons aside to inspect his aunt’s latest creation. 

“Looks great!” He commented with a clap. Beru set them on the counter to cool and ruffled his long, golden blonde hair. It was nearly time for a trim, or for her to give Luke some of her hair ties. 

“Thank you, dear.” She said, kicking the oven door shut. 

“Beru!” Owen called down from the front. “I need your help repairing number three!” 

Beru sighed, knowing this could be an all afternoon affair. “Luke, while I’m helping your uncle, can you give one of these loaves to TeeNine?” 

The young boy nodded vigorously, and Beru had confidence it would be done. Pulling a wide brimmed hat on, she joined her husband in attending to the shoddy evaporator. 

-

Usually, Obi Wan did not quite know when one of Beru’s deliveries would arrive. But after the recent cookies, he was anticipating the next time TE-9 would come crashing over. However, today there was a warning, and not the kind he expected. 

Luke was nearby, as well as a whole lot more life than the old Jedi was used to. 

Straining to not curse under his breath, Obi Wan hesitantly hooked his lightsaber to his belt and rushed out. He would be sure to be unseen, but keep the young Skywalker from getting himself into a whole world of trouble. 

-

“There you are!” Owen shouted out, running over to scoop Luke into his arms. “You had us scared half to death!” 

Beru came next, kicking TE-9 with a scowl before peppering Luke’s face with kisses. “We thought the sand people might have taken you away! Don’t ever run off like that again!” 

“I just wanted to see Old Ben!” Luke protested. “He never even gets to say thank you… Thought he might want to know who cooks for him.” 

Owen and Beru exchanged a worried look. “What happened, Luke?” Beru then asked. 

“He wasn’t even home!” Luke cried out, squirming until Owen placed him back on his feet. TE-9 blurted out a protest before barreling into the house, exclaiming none of this was his fault. 

“Maybe he moved.” Owen said flatly. 

-

It was several weeks before Beru finally broke down and let Luke convince her to make cookies for Old Ben. She wasn’t sure where he’d learned that name, maybe from the kids at Tosche Station, but it had stuck. On top of slightly improved versions of the cookies they made last time, Beru added a fourth. A diamond shape frosted pale blue with a brown ‘O’ iced on in Luke’s wiggly penmanship. 

The young boy giggled. “O is for old!” 

Beru did not correct him. 

It was much later than usual that TE-9 returned, Luke taking a lot of coaxing before finally passing out mid exclamation on the couch that he should go searching for the droid. Rolling in much slower than usual, TE-9 dumped the plate of cookies, untouched, back into Beru’s arms before powering down. 

No matter how much she and Owen tinkered with the thing, it would not restart. 

“Must have been the Sand People.” Owen muttered. 

“Owen, I think you’re right.” Beru replied solemnly. “Maybe he did finally leave.” 

-

It had pained him to sabotage the droid, even more so to send back the sweets, but Obi Wan knew it had to be done. Last time was just too close a call, and his purpose here was to protect Luke. He’d get on fine without sweets, he tried to tell himself. 

But it was not the sweets that had mattered to him. 

It was the acknowledgement that he was alive. 


End file.
